No Donald Trump eclipse wanted

What is an eclipse? It is a blocking, an obscuration. In life, it’s someone or something block your light.

Americans were excitedly gearing up to watch the moon blocking the light of the sun on Aug. 21. The event was the perfect metaphor for what’s happening in our country right now.

Donald Trump is an eclipse on the United States of America. He and his “alt-right” (a prettied-up nickname for the KKK, neo-Nazis and other white supremacist goons) are trying to block America’s progress. His slogan, “Make America great again,” was a code for “Make America white again.”

His reaction to the horror in Charlottesville showed his true colors. He and his hateful followers have dreams of Jim Crow and dogs with big teeth unleashed by Bull Connor on African-Americans for simply trying to vote.

How horrific it must have been for those who survived the Holocaust to see men marching the streets on American soil with torches, waving flags emblazoned with swastikas, and shouting “blood and soil” and other anti-Semitic and racist phrases.

I first came to America in 1964, and have seen the progress made in race relations over the years. Things are not perfect, and never will be. But it’s a lot better than some countries where almost everyone looks the same.

Never in my most fevered nightmare did I imagine an American president giving full-throated public support to white supremacists.

Have a look up the narrow pathway connecting Arlington Avenue and Kappock Street in Spuyten Duyvil and one might see a steep trail of hideous, uneven pavement snaking between warped side rails bent out of shape. It’s like something out of a Gothic fairy tale.